A council and Europe's largest private mint yesterday escaped with paying costs of pounds 250 after admitting breaching British coinage law by introducing a euro-style coin.

Isle of Wight Council, which had 12,000 tokens minted last year to raise funds for charity, and Pobjoy Mint of Sutton, Surrey, were given an absolute discharge by a stipendiary magistrate in Newport. The Treasury said the tokens breached a coinage law originally introduced in 1812 because they displayed a pounds 2 value.